"Painfully visible are the inherent design deficiencies of a
foundation that was never intended to support such weight. Windows
seems to move an inch for every time that Mac OS X or Linux laps it.
The best solution to the multiple woes of Windows is starting over. Completely. Now."
It occurs to me that I've never attempted to record or list all the computers I've owned and used over the years. Before my memory fails me, I'm going to commit at least a few down:
Apple IIGS (1986?, still no hard drive - I bought one but returned it because I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with it, and it was way expensive.)
No-name, 80386-based, 33-mHz tower case PC (1990?-1995, beige, furniture-huge. I ran a BBS off it in high school.)
Power Macintosh 8600 (1995-1998, $3000, my first web design and imaging machine)
PowerBook 2400 (1997-1998, unbelievably compact, unbelievably awkward to use. My first laptop, bought for covering conventions for Cnet.)
Home built Pentium (1998-2000, I think I just disposed of this a year or two ago as it had a second life at my parents' house.)
Dell Laptop (1998, Adrian and I bought this for our company. The first day we tested the new -external- wireless modem in Harvard Square, a pigeon dropped a mess right on the pristine keyboard.)
Large Dell Laptop (Late 1999, originally my work laptop at iKena but eventually purchased from the company for my personal use for $250 when we were acquired by Net2Phone.)
AMD "Athlon"-based home-built PC (2001-2004? Slot A based.)
Dell Latitude X200 (2002-2004, bought for business school after I dropped the previous Dell at a final exam.)
2nd Athlon-based home-built PC (2004-2007, Socket A. Still in use, very occasionally.)
MacBook Black, 2Ghz/2 GB RAM (January 2007-Present. I've used the hell out of this computer, it was my only personal PC for a year and is now both my work and personal computer. I'm probably a year from thinking about replacing it as I write this in June 2008 -- my only complaint is it's a few pounds heavier than I'd like, but the MacBook Air isn't quite fast enough yet.)
Yeah, I notice that I'm kind of vague around the PC desktops and laptops I used during the 2000-2007 period. I blame it on the desktops all being home-built systems that often saw a number of CPUs during their lifetimes, and the laptops being those generic black Dell designs that are always named "Latitude" or "Inspiron" with a number that doesn't particularly mean anything. It's also clear that I change computers about every two years -- ignoring the overlap between desktop and PC ownership (which partially relates to playing games on the PC), I've owned about 10 computers in the last 24 years.
I'm definitely done with doing anything home-built any more. The time investment vs. the marginal savings and learning opportunity just no longer works in the current era of cheap computing power. No point squeezing an extra 10% more power out of hardware when you can just spend another $100 or so instead.
(I'm also wondering if I should really put the Playstation, Xbox and Xbox360 on this list -- by all measures they're essentially a computer -- especially the latter two with their internal HDs -- and I'm not sure they should be cut out just because they're specialists.)
There's something really remarkable going on right now around the ability of consumers to create truly remarkable HD content and distribute it via the Internet. We've reach a moment where the production gear costs have dropped low enough, a fairly "average" computer like a MacBook Pro can edit in HD, and there are ready channels to distribute to the world, both in terms of technology (sites like Vimeo, which hosts the above video) and the bandwidth and capabilities of end users.
HD video is leaps and bounds ahead of standard video in terms of how "film like" it can get, and the tools are now arriving that let individuals record very high quality HD video for as less than $2000 - cameras run $600-800, and a $1000 adapter called the Letus Mini lets you connect SLR lenses for "film like" depth of field and fous effects, and a $2000 laptop with iMovieHD (free with new Macs) is all you need to edit, output and upload.
Right now this is leading to a lot of playing around on sites like Vimeo's HD Channel, but it won't be long before folks are producing their own documentaries, etc. using this. It's going to lead to an explosion of niche HD content, plus I'm sure a lot of more widespread hits as well. And it's going to have a real impact on traditional broadcast media - when a home user can produce niche content with quality twice that of a DVD, you're going to see a lot of competition for all those low-budget cable shows trying to survive out there right now.
It's very exciting, and I'm looking forward to see how it plays out over the next year or two. One thing I know for sure - this means I'd rather have a full on computer, like a Mac Mini, attached to my HDTV rather than something like the AppleTV where I'm locked into only a few distribution channels.
I just set up a new account with PhoneTag this morning. Those who know me have probably realized I hate voicemails - both leaving them and receiving them in an era where everyone either has SMS or email on their mobile phone. For $0.35 a message, or about $10 a month up to 40 voicemails, PhoneTag converts your incoming voicemails into emails or SMS and sends them to your phone. If you choose to receive emails, there's also an attachment with the recorded voice message attached.
This is absolutely fantastic (if it proves out as working properly) for a number of reasons:
You can read the emails and handle them far faster than the linear, awkward interface of standard voicemail (and even the better system on the iPhone.)
You can file messages right along with your email records in a single system for later review - and the text is searchable right along with your emails
You can forward any voicemail to anyone else with email, without transcribing it
I think the real question here is why this isn't just a default option when you get a cell phone.
"This sounds overly simplistic, but I really do think Apple just split
the mobile world into two choices: settle for a free phone or buy an
iPhone. There just aren't many reasons to do anything else."
Steve Jobs took $200 out of my wallet today. And I wasn't a v1 iPhone buyer... but I knew this was coming. July 11. He might as well have taken it from my wallet while I was asleep and left an iPhone (the iPhone fairy?)
I've been playing around with an Xbox 360 for a few weeks -- if you have an HD television, it's definitely worth checking out. The graphics and interface on a 720p TV are amazing (I haven't seen it on a 1080i, but I can only assume it's just as good if not better.) Kudos to Microsoft for the full wireless controller support -- with the couch now farther from the TV than ever in most homes, it's about time. Support for Internet play is also great -- although the initial batch of games are probably not utilizing the system to its fullest, nor do they offer the quality of design for online play seen in say, Halo 2.
However, if you're not using a large-screen HD television, it's probably not worth upgrading quite yet; my guess is that on an s-video connection, the marginal gain in quality is probably not worth the money. With the price of 42" HD televisions dropping 30% or more each year, it's time to upgrade the display if you haven't already.
Cryptonomicon author Neal Stephenson's essay for the NYT links the final trilogy episode with our somewhat strained relationship to high tech.
"Nothing is more seductive than to think that we, like the Jedi, could be masters of the most advanced technologies while living simple lives: to have a geek standard of living and spend our copious leisure time vegging out."
Although he links it to the very first episodes, thirty-odd years ago, I'd argue that the societal issues he's pointing to are really recent -- and probably go hand-in-hand with the increasing presence of computers in daily life rather than any other technology. It's not that the technology is so high tech -- nobody stress over the tech in their airplane or cell phone -- it's that the interface is often so bad. The experience most of us have with technology is not improving as fast as our need to utilize it.
